Top Web Site Blunders by Coaches, Consultants and Experts
Of all the web sites belonging to coaches, consultants and
experts that I have reviewed, more than three-quarters
shared a very serious marketing blunder: Their potential
clients wouldn't understand from their home page precisely
what they do. Jargon gets in the way. Many specialists believe that they need jargon to
communicate their expertise. Without it, they'd sound
incompetent, they think, and those in their target market
who are as specialized as they are wouldn't respect them.
My recommendation is not to eliminate jargon, but to
include it in the site, with your main emphasis on the
business benefits your company provides or the problems
your company solves. For instance, I've done an informal survey to see if
business owners understand the jargonistic tag line, "CRM
software for small business." Nope! Most aren't even sure
what "customer relationship management" really means. But
if you write, "Close sales faster and improve customer
loyalty through customer relationship management (CRM)
software for small business," you'll earn greater
comprehension, without alienating those who already know
the shorthand. Don't think this applies to you? Sorry, it does. Nearly
everyone in business overestimates - usually greatly
overestimates - the extent to which customers understand
their jargon. The other nearly epidemic blunder at sites belonging to
coaches, consultants and experts is not explaining clearly
and persuasively why someone should use you rather than the
competition. What's unique about you? How do you differ
from your colleagues? If everyone is qualified and
experienced, why should I choose you? With sufficient
thought and care, you can add text to your web site that
gets potential clients thinking, "This is exactly the
person who can help!" Related to this is the absence at many sites of two
powerful tools for credibly distinguishing yourself from
the competition: testimonials and expert articles.
Testimonials are quotes from clients you've helped, and
they should refer to results achieved with your help - not
just you being a competent, nice service provider - and be
signed with a complete name and business identifier or
geographical location. Expert articles engage visitors to
your site and show that you know your stuff. Finally, all coaches, consultants and experts need to have
a newsletter to capitalize properly on visits to their web
site. This is because people shopping for professional
services sometimes decide to buy that very day. More
often, they come to your site looking for information
rather than to hire someone. If they read a couple of your
articles, like them and sign up for your newsletter, you'll
have the chance to impress these potential clients
repeatedly. Down the line, they're likely to hire you,
sometimes without ever returning to your site. But your
site set that process in motion. Marcia Yudkin is the author of Web Site
Marketing Makeover and 10 other books. A four-time Webby
Awards judge and internationally famous marketing
consultant, she critiques web sites and performs web site
makeovers for clients. Learn more about her detailed
critique sessions on five different kinds of web sites
(including sites for consultants and other professionals)
at http://www.yudkin.com/websitequiz.htm .
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
The Secret to 100% Success With Your Marketing
There's a secret to marketing, which is so simple, yet so effective once you learn it and apply it, you'll be amazed at the great results you can produce. This secret will prevent you from failing with your marketing pieces.
Everything Youve Ever Learned About Marketing Is Wrong
Everything you've ever learned about marketing and advertising is WRONG. Everything you've ever heard everything you've ever tried, everything you've ever done, it's all WRONG.
How You Can Make Money From Competitors Easy
Are you market products and services using PPCs? PPC Advertising is one of the fastest and easiest ways to get visitors, capture email addresses and make sales. However, I am sure not every campaign you created are profitable. For some keywords, you may need to compete with competitors to bid for the clicks. When there are too many competitors making the cost of a click too high, you will not be able to profit anymore.
Deciphering Marketing Lingo: Whats the Difference between a USP, Single Message and a Tagline?
Maybe you've heard these different marketing terms, maybe you haven't. Either way, let me help to clarify the difference between them, because you should have all three if you want to market successfully. And knowing what they are may be your first step to accomplishing all three for your business.
Want To Be A Stronger Marketer? Work Your Marketing Muscles!
You want to be more flexible? You have to stretch your muscles. Want to be physically stronger? You have to find a way to workout and build your muscles. Want to be a stronger marketer? You've got to work your marketing muscles.
Effective Marketing
For any business to be successful whether on or offline it has to be marketing effectively. You are going to need more than a great looking site with fabulous products or services to obtain success. You will need to run an effective marketing campaign and for this you will need a marketing plan.
The First Rule of CRM for Financial Services
Things have to change. Cross selling is not going to happen simply by installing new CRM technology. A corresponding movement from a transaction mentality to the underlying CRM principle of focusing on the long-term relationship is required. What does this mean for financial services? Stop pushing products and start building relationships.
Keeping your Business Card visible
Famous quotes that keep you thinking.
A Successful Solution: 10 Things to Consider
A provocation for the coming year, decade, century or millennium.
A Questionnaire for Businesses
As best you can, answer the following twenty-five questions. There's no scoring. But
you'll know whether you should be satisfied with your answers, or not. If you aren't,
perhaps you have some work to do.
Business Cards that Make Them CALL
How would you use
business cards for gift certificates?
7 Cheap & Easy Ways To Get Prospects
Here are some quick techniques you can put into place on your web site or in your advertising to gather new prospects. There is practically no cost for most of these strategies yet they have proven to be extremely effective in any number of different venues. Use one, two or all of these strategies for a quick shot in the arm.
Costly Web Copy Pitfalls
One secret to a site that sells: Look at your site from your customer's perspective. Another secret: Watch out for these common web copy pitfalls.
Why Cutting Prices Is Like Cutting Your Own Throat
Why cutting your prices is like cutting your own throat.
It's the oldest sales tactic in the world?
And one of the worst?
Price cutting.
Before you make your next price cut in the face of sales resistance, the question you have to ask yourself is not, "Does it work?," but rather, "Can you live with the bargain?"
Here's a pop quiz: you ? in your role as salesperson ? go for the close. You ask the prospect to make a commitment and they don't. What's your first response?
Well, if you are like most people in a selling situation ? whether you are the hired sales guy or the CEO-your first response to people not buying-for whatever the reason-is to say, "Would you buy if? ?," and the "if" is always some variant of, "...if the price was lower?"
And you ask it almost before you ask them WHY they won't buy.
And it's not only when they tell you they won't buy. Many people in sales mentally calculate the discount into their profit calculations, and start discounting even before they try to close the deal. In almost every sales job that I've worked in, people faced with an end-of-quarter crunch to "make the numbers" start playing the discount game. In many industries, it's become common practice to give away all the profits, and many customers are trained to expect it.
Trouble is, people are not usually 'not buying' because your price is too high.
If you've taken the trouble to establish the real of your product or service, you ? and your prospect ? already know that the value far exceeds the price you are asking. (If not, you better go back and rethink the math.)
So if they are saying "no," or simply not saying "yes," it either means they are experienced buyers waiting for you to spontaneously cut your price, or it means they just do not see a sufficiently compelling value?yet.
Cutting your prices will almost never lead to new sales if they didn't plan on buying in the first place, and the effect on your profits can be devastating. Follow these numbers:
Let's say you sell a product for $100. Your cost is $70. That means it carries a thirty percent margin-your profit is $30. Now, to make a sale, you are "forced" to cut your price by twenty percent. Your new selling price is $80. All things being equal, your profit is now $10-instead of $30. That means a 20% price reduction cost you 66% of your profits.
TWO-THIRDS OF YOUR PROFITS for a 20% price reduction!
Cut your price much more and your profit quickly goes to zero. Or lower.
And that's not even the worst of it.
Once you lower prices, they tend to stay low. That $100 widget you just sold for $80? Well, sorry to say, but it's now an $80 widget.
Even more damaging, your like-minded competitors will almost definitely lower their prices, and you, my friend, are in a price war. To win in this scenario, you need deep pockets to sustain a losing position for the duration.
So for these three reasons-depressed profit margins, permanently lowered prices, and the devastation of a price war-it's a bad idea to lower your prices to buy business-regardless of the economic climate.
What can you do instead?
The two main strategies are clarifying and quantifying the value, and packaging products or services to maintain higher prices.
Here's an interesting example. One of my clients-a software company-had a hot prospect who didn't want to buy the typical contract for software maintenance. They felt that 18% per year was just too expensive, and wanted to pay ad hoc instead.
My client knew this was a bad idea. Customers without maintenance contracts typically become your worst. Why? Because they know it's going to cost them each time they pick up the phone for support, so they try not to. Thus, they don't get the right level of service, they don't know how to use the product and they don't get the results they paid for in the first place.
And even though it's their fault for skimping, they point the finger at you and badmouth your company.
On my advice, my client offered the prospect a four year non-cancelable maintenance contract, and gave them the first year for free. And although it was a 25 percent reduction in total purchase price, it never lowered the per year pricing, and it actually guaranteed more than the prospect's original commitment.
Plus, my client locked in that customer for four full years, during which time they rightly expect to sell them additional products and services.
Price cutting is the "lazy man's" response when it's hard to make sales. Unfortunately, it may not boost total revenues, and results in drastically lowered profits on the sales that do get made. Often the outcome includes permanently reduced prices and margins, and even a price war, which has disastrous consequences for all players, except very deep-pocketed ones.
Sell the value instead. Spend the time to discover what your prospect is trying to accomplish, and make sure your product or service helps them do that. Then establish the quantifiable financial impact, and sell them that. Or package, bundle or go for the long-term, multi-year commitment.
There are other approaches that not only maintain price levels, but even support higher ones. To get an overview of those approaches, visit http://www.lemberg.com/tipsandtools.html and download "5 tactics to avoid price cutting."
--PL
Paul Lemberg. All rights reserved
Reprint rights freely given. Please click here for details.
Marketing Ideas Without Action Will Get You Nowhere!
Marketing Ideas Without Action Get You Nowhere
The Anatomy of Hype
On a copywriting board I frequent, someone expressed
bafflement that several respected marketers criticized the
tone of a sales page he wrote. "Why did they apologize to
their subscribers while linking to my pitch? This approach
sells," he said.
Consider Consumer Psychology
In your marketing efforts, be they on or offline, it's wise to consider the psychology of the consumer you are targeting. If you've done your homework you've developed a profile of your ideal customer and how your unique selling point speaks to them. Now, as you begin to develop a marketing strategy, writing ad copy, developing radio copy, and creating web copy, it is an understanding of consumer psychology that will help you speak to the consumer.
Direct Mail Still Works!
Direct Mail Campaigns
At the Speed of Light
How many times has someone you've called said, "Why don't you send me some
information on your company"?
Marketing Tips - Ten Quick Marketing Actions
It is often difficult to manage to do marketing tasks when you have a busy business or professional practice. Here are 10 ideas each of which take 5 or 10 minutes and can be done between appointments or when you take a break from working on a large project.
|
